Making Creative Cloth Dolls

Making a malleable cloth doll is the closest you can get to enjoying godlike powers. When you create and embellish the doll's human form, it sometimes seems to take on a personality of its own. For this intermediate-level cloth doll-making manual, Le Van designed three blank canvas doll patterns representing three human qualities: clarity, energy, and strength. Then she invited five doll artists (Tracy Stilwell, Lynne Sward, Arlinka Blair, Pamela Hastings, and Barbara Carleton Evans) to create dolls based on the patterns. The result is a gallery of individual art dolls that can be used as a jumping-off place for your own creative efforts. In addition, there are 12 pattern projects with full-size patterns and guidelines for making dolls that range from a simple "Wily Woman" doll with a bent wire frame to an elaborate, embellished "Personal Symbol Figure." Those new to the art of cloth doll making might start with Jodie Davis's Teach Yourself Cloth Dollmaking or Mariam Gourley's Cloth Dolls: How To Make Them before tackling this one. A good buy for large public libraries and textile collections.
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